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Air Pollution/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim & Moby Moby is behind the wheel of a car. He is parked, with the motor running, in front of a building. He honks the horn repeatedly. A sign on the building reads "Fuel Cell Technology Convention". Tim sticks his head out of the front door. TIM: Stop honking! Tim walks to the car to speak to Moby. TIM: Have you had the engine running this whole time? Moby honks the horn again. Tim gets in on the passenger side of the car. Moby hands Tim a piece of paper. MOBY: Beep. Tim reads from the typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, What causes pollution? From, Dalia. Air pollution comes from a lot of different sources. Like car engines. They burn gasoline, and that adds a lot of dangerous chemicals to the air. Power plants, factories, and even the furnaces and stoves we use to heat homes and offices, all of these pollute the air. Images show a power plant, a factory, and a furnace. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, fossil fuels like coal, gas, and oil release particles of soot and dust when they're burned. Moby starts the car. TIM: They also release deadly gases, like carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. Smoke comes from the car's tailpipe. Two small smoke clouds are labeled SO2 and CO2. TIM: These gases can make healthy people sick and sick people even worse. They can make your eyes water and your throat feel dry. An animation shows an elderly woman and a younger woman breathing in the smoke and coughing. TIM: In some cases, they can permanently damage your lungs and even cause cancer. An image shows a pair of lungs. TIM: Plus, they're greenhouse gases, so they contribute to global warming. See that? Tim and Moby look through the car's front windshield. The city before them looks gray and smoky. MOBY: Beep. TIM: That's smog. MOBY: Beep. TIM: It's a mixture of smoke and fog that forms over cities. And it's not good for us to breathe. Smog contains ozone, a molecule made of three oxygen atoms. An animation shows green ozone molecules. TIM: High up in the atmosphere, the ozone layer protects Earth from solar radiation. But when ozone is down here, in the lower atmosphere, it reacts with other molecules to produce deadly poisons. An image illustrates the earth surrounded by a layer of ozone. TIM: And the ozone layer isn't safe from air pollution, either. Chemicals released by humans have thinned it out, allowing harmful ultraviolet rays to reach the earth's surface. An image shows the earth and its atmosphere from space. The sun’s rays are getting through the atmosphere and hitting the earth’s surface. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Right-O, Moby. Acid rain is another result of air pollution. All those pollutants in the air can combine with water droplets and then fall down to Earth as rain. Acid rain has a lower P H than normal rain. Tim and Moby are still in the car, watching it rain. An animation shows acid rain hitting the earth. TIM: When it soaks into the ground or falls into bodies of water, those habitats become too acidic, and the organisms that live in them are destroyed. An animation shows acid rain falling into a pond and killing the fish. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Oh, pollution can come from natural sources, too. Like wildfires, volcanic eruptions, even cow burps. Images show a forest fire, a volcano, and a cow. Moby giggles. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Laugh all you want, but cow burps contain a harmful gas called methane. The car stops and Tim and Moby look out the window. A row of cows passes slowly by them. One stops and burps. TIM: And cows produce about eighty million metric tons of it every year. Moby starts driving again. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, we can ride bikes and walk for transportation. And if we have to drive, we can drive hybrid cars. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Nope. This one isn't. But maybe we can convince Mom and Dad to buy a hybrid when they need a new car. Moby abruptly hits the breaks and turns off the engine. MOBY: Beep. TIM: We can also insulate our homes, so they don't need so much energy to heat and cool. Every little bit of electricity we save means less that has to be produced by burning fossil fuels. An image shows Earth from space. TIM: All of which can lead to less air pollution and a cleaner planet in general. Tim and Moby's car is still sitting in the middle of the road. TIM: So, um. Aren't we going home now? MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, that's nice that you don’t want to make any more pollution today, but we need to get home. The scene fades. It is replaced by a scene of Tim pushing the car while Moby steers. The sun is setting behind them. TIM: Hey, I think it's your turn to push! MOBY: Beep. TIM: Grrrr. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts